ACFT to AFT: Army Fitness Test Events, Scoring, and Deadlines

The Army Fitness Test became the Army’s official physical fitness test of record on June 1, 2025, replacing the Army Combat Fitness Test. It has five events instead of six, drops the standing power throw, and scores soldiers on two tiers: a tougher, sex-neutral standard for combat specialties and a sex- and age-normed standard for combat-enabling roles. You need at least 60 points on each event and a total of 350 (combat) or 300 (combat-enabling) to pass.¹

The Five Events

Every soldier takes the same five events in the same order. The battery is designed to reflect physical tasks encountered in the field without requiring specialized equipment.

Three-Repetition Maximum Deadlift

You load a hex bar and lift the heaviest weight you can manage for three clean repetitions. Depending on age bracket, the minimum weight for a 60-point passing score is 140 or 150 pounds. A perfect 100-point score requires 340 to 350 pounds for most age groups and drops to 230 pounds for soldiers 62 and older.²

Hand-Release Push-Up

Lower yourself to the ground, extend both arms out to the sides in a T, then press back up. The arm extension enforces the full range of motion. You do as many correct repetitions as you can within the time limit.¹

Sprint-Drag-Carry

Five 50-meter shuttles back to back: a sprint, a 90-pound sled drag, a lateral shuffle, a carry with two 40-pound kettlebells, and a final sprint. The whole thing is timed and simulates the anaerobic bursts of moving casualties, ammunition, or equipment under pressure.¹

Plank

Hold a forearm plank with a straight back for as long as you can. This event replaced the leg tuck and tests sustained core endurance. Graders will terminate the event if your hips sag or pike.¹

Two-Mile Run

A timed run on a measured, generally flat outdoor course. Passing times vary widely. A male soldier aged 17–21 needs to finish in 19:57; a female soldier over 62 has up to 25:00.² The standing power throw from the old ACFT is gone, cut because of its technical difficulty and injury risk.¹

How Scoring Works

Each event is scored on a 0-to-100 scale, so the maximum possible total is 500. The floor is 60 points per event. Where you diverge from the person next to you is the required total, which depends on whether your MOS is classified as combat or combat-enabling.¹

Combat specialties: sex-neutral, age-normed scoring. Minimum total of 350 points and at least 60 per event. Every soldier in a combat MOS is held to the same standard regardless of gender.
Combat-enabling specialties: sex- and age-normed scoring. Minimum total of 300 points and at least 60 per event.

Combat standards stay sex-neutral because the physical demands of close combat don’t change based on who’s performing the task. Age-norming applies in both tiers.¹

Scoring tables use ten age brackets: 17–21, 22–26, 27–31, 32–36, 37–41, 42–46, 47–51, 52–56, 57–61, and 62 and older.² The scales widen gradually. A 23-year-old and a 54-year-old may both need 60 points on the two-mile run, but the younger soldier’s passing time is roughly 19:45 while the older soldier gets nearly 23 minutes.

Deadlines to Meet the Standard

The AFT became the test of record on June 1, 2025. Every record fitness test taken from that date forward is scored under AFT rules.³

Regular Army, Active Guard Reserve, and Reserve Component soldiers on active-duty orders for more than 60 days had until January 1, 2026, to meet the standards without adverse consequences. Failures during that window were not flagged.¹ National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers not on extended active-duty orders have until June 1, 2026.³

Combat-MOS soldiers who cleared the general passing standard but fell short of the higher combat threshold also received a pass during the transition. No adverse action was taken against them before January 1, 2026.

Alternate Events and the Postpartum Exemption

Soldiers on permanent medical profiles who cannot perform the two-mile run may be authorized one of four alternate aerobic events: a 2.5-mile walk, a 12-kilometer stationary bike, a 1-kilometer swim, or a 5-kilometer row. Alternates are scored Go/No-Go rather than on the 0-to-100 scale. You either finish within the required time or you don’t.²

Soldiers on permanent profiles still have to average 70 points across whichever standard events they can perform, in addition to passing the alternate aerobic event.¹ Temporary profiles follow existing recovery timelines under ATP 7-22.01 until the soldier is cleared to test normally.

Under Army Directive 2025-02, soldiers are exempt from taking a record fitness test while pregnant and for 365 days after the conclusion of the pregnancy, regardless of the outcome, including perinatal loss.⁴ You can volunteer to test during the exemption period without ending it early. A short attempt that falls short does not trigger adverse consequences, because the exemption window stays open through the full 365 days.

The Combat Field Test Is Separate

The AFT is not the only fitness requirement for soldiers in combat roles. The Army also introduced the Combat Field Test, a separate annual requirement for 24 designated combat MOSs. The CFT is a seven-event sequence performed continuously in ACU and combat boots, scored on total completion time rather than individual event points. You must finish in 30 minutes or less, and the standard is the same for every soldier regardless of age or sex.⁵

The seven events, run back to back, are a one-mile run, 30 dead-stop push-ups, a 100-meter sprint, 16 sandbag lifts with 40-pound bags onto a 65-inch platform, a 50-meter carry of two 40-pound water cans, a 50-meter movement drill (25-meter high crawl plus 25-meter rush), and a final one-mile run. Soldiers on permanent profiles who cannot perform AFT events are ineligible for the CFT.¹

Under Army Directive 2026-07, Regular Army, Active Guard Reserve, and Reserve Component soldiers on active-duty orders of 365 days or more take one record AFT and one record CFT per year. Reserve Component soldiers in combat specialties who are not on long active-duty orders alternate, taking a record AFT one year and a record CFT the next. Soldiers in combat-enabling specialties take the AFT only.⁶

What Happens If You Fail

Failing a record AFT triggers real administrative consequences. Your commander initiates a Flag under AR 600-8-2 (Flag code J), which suspends most favorable personnel actions until you pass a subsequent record test.⁷ The flag is not discretionary.

While flagged, you cannot:

Reenlist, extend, or be appointed or reappointed
Be promoted, frocked, or appear before a promotion board
Receive individual awards or decorations
Attend military or civilian schools (with narrow exceptions)
Use tuition assistance
Take advance or excess leave
Receive enlistment or reenlistment bonus payments
Assume command

Reassignment is still permitted when the flag is solely for AFT failure. The flag is removed the day you pass a record test.⁷ If a physician later determines the soldier was pregnant at the time of the failure, the commander removes the flag immediately.

Soldiers who fail are enrolled in remedial physical training built around their specific weaknesses. The program is individualized rather than one-size-fits-all.

1
U.S. Army. Army Fitness Test
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U.S. Army. AFT Scoring Scales
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The United States Army. Army Introduces New Fitness Test for 2025
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Department of the Army. Army Directive 2025-02 – Parenthood, Pregnancy, and Postpartum
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The United States Army. US Army Announces New Combat Field Test to Enhance Soldier Readiness
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Department of the Army. Army Directive 2026-07 – Army Physical Fitness Standards
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Department of the Army. Army Regulation 600-8-2 – Suspension of Favorable Personnel Actions